The direction indicator - a necessity?
04/10/2014
It's hard to imagine a car without indicators. Around 100 years ago, however, there were heated debates about the nature and standardization of the "direction indicator". Its usefulness was undisputed, but what should it look like and where should it be fitted?
It was recognized early on that standardization was more than just sensible, as the ADAC Motorwelt summarized in 1927:
"The same direction indicator on all vehicles, on motor vehicles and bicycles, on streetcars, horse-drawn vehicles, in short, on every vehicle, regardless of whether it is moved forward by motor, horse or human power, would be the ideal situation! It may also be possible to accept that mechanically powered vehicles, motor vehicles, streetcars, etc., make the start, and that corresponding regulations for horse-drawn vehicles are postponed for the time being, because the technical difficulties of standardization seem almost insurmountable. But standardization is urgently needed! "
In 1927, the ADAC Motorwelt identified the double-sided indicator, which was designed according to psychotechnical studies, as probably the ideal direction indicator. However, it was recognized at the time that this complex mechanism (with Bowden cables) could not be introduced across the board because it was prone to malfunctions and expensive to build. Alternative solutions such as the "electrically illuminated housing indicator", on the other hand, were less quickly noticed and understood by test subjects. However, this was perhaps also due to the size of the swivel arm of the direction indicator, which could be 30 or 40 cm long!
Now, almost 100 years later, we can hardly remember the double-sided indicator, which disappeared along with the Beetle and the like in the late 1950s. The blinker has prevailed and, like many other things, developed into design elements with LED diodes ...
